“I visit him whenever I can, but sometimes my work takes me far away from him.

“It’s all very distressing, of course, but I really am looking forward to starting rehearsals in Newcastle. It’s a privilege to work here.”

For Spike Rawlings, who was a big name around the North clubs of the 70s and 80s, it was his first panto role.

And he told the Chronicle his role of Simple Simon required him to dance.

“I’ve got two left feet,” he said, “so I might get some laughs out of my rather ungainly manoeuvres. Mind you, I’ll be sticking to the script and doing no solo spots.”

But it was Windsor who was undoubtedly the big name – and she was no stranger to the theatre stages of the region.

In August 1979, we reported how she was preparing for her appearance at Sunderland Empire…with a lump in her throat.

It was there, of course, that in April 1976 her close friend and fellow Carry On star Sid James had died after collapsing on stage.

She said: “I had such a shock when I learned the provincial tour of Calamity Jane would be finishing at the Empire. I have had a thing about Sunderland ever since Sid’s death.”

Barbara Windsor and Spike Rawlings

She gave a frank interview about her relationship with James a couple of year later when she was in the region.

At the time, she’d come under fire for selling her story, telling how the craggy star had been in love with her, to a national tabloid.

She defended herself, saying: “There had been rumours in the past. Sid and I had been very close and worked together a lot.

“At first it was professional admiration on his part, then it got to be a problem and it drove me mad.

“He was a lovely man, a dear friend, but we never had an affair.

“I was forced to write the true story, or they would have made up lies.” Windsor, in the years that followed, divorced Knight (who was acquitted of murder). She went on to have a chequered personal life and found herself on primetime BBC TV, playing Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders.